Judge chastises CERB recipient who cheated by smuggling cigars

A Toronto man who played a role in a large-scale cigar smuggling operation that brought more than $144,000 in cigars across Niagara border crossings has been granted a conditional discharge.

Christopher Bryan, 25, was ordered to pay $25,000 in restitution to the Receiver General for Canada.

The restitution order is about one-sixth of the total duties and taxes evaded.

At his sentencing hearing in Ontario Court of Justice in St. Catharines Monday on a charge of evasion of taxes under the Customs Act, the defendant was also placed on probation for three years and ordered to perform 200 hours of community service.

Judge Fergus O’donnell said while the defendant, who did not have a criminal record, was not a major player in the scheme he was as liable as the ringleader of the operation.

“Tax evasion is a fraud. The victims are, if you want to be neutral about it, the Government of Canada. If you want to be up front about it, the victims are every single taxpayer who has to share more of the burden of running a country than they ought to because you’re defunding the government of revenue that could have been spent on various things.”

The judge noted it was “more than a little bit ironic” after having participated in a large scale fraud against the government, the defendant was a beneficiary of the Canadian Emergency Response Benefit.

“Paid for the by the Government of Canada, the organization you defrauded.”

Court heard Bryan was given PIN numbers to withdraw cash and purchase cigars in the United States on more than 30 occasions. The contraband was then packaged and shipped. In June 2019, for example, just more than $81,000 in cigars were purchased.

The Crown had sought a 90day jail sentence, saying there was a “sophistication in the smuggling.”

Defence lawyer Jonathan Frastaglio argued jail was a “disproportionately high” penalty that would negatively impact his client’s potential employment opportunities.

“(The defendant) was not the organizer of this event. He was a participant, but he was not the leader.”